Fair food, fun planned for CityFest

“It isn’t a festival without fun food,” said Paul Hegreness, superintendent of recreation for Mentor.

And Mentor CityFest will have plenty of that “fun food.”

This year’s second annual, two-day festival will feature an assortment of food to please anyone’s palate.

Jill Korsok, the Mentor CityFest manager and recreation program manager, said hamburgers, pasta, sausage sandwiches, snow cones, funnel cakes, BBQ and more will be on the menu.

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“What was requested last year was cotton candy, which we have this year,” she said.

Also new this year will be fresh juice, meat-on-a-stick and East Coast Custard.

“We have healthy options and other different things to try for a good representation of all types of food,” she said.

A questionnaire was sent out to several residents to get feedback on what they would like at CityFest, and Korsok said the No. 1 thing residents wanted was festival food.

“We can take 21 food vendors and we were sold out of space in April,” she said. “Vendors like to be here because it is a great draw.”

Adult beverages can also be purchased at the festival, as well as a beer tasting of local craft beers Aug. 22 and Aug. 23, and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. There will be a wine tasting Aug. 23.

Along with food and entertainment, several activities are planned and games for all ages will be up and running.

The Main Street Tent and Community Corner will allow the community to meet with local business and organizations both days of the festival.

There will be a row of community-run games with more than a dozen skill-testing games, as well as a children’s craft tent, rides on the CityFest Express train, indoor laser tag, inflatables, plinko, duck races and a zipline.

Hooley House Pub Trivia Contest will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 22; Mentor K-9 demonstrations will be at 6:15 p.m. Aug. 22 and 7 p.m. Aug. 23; Skyhoundz Canine Frisbee Competition World Qualifier will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 23; and Touch-A-Truck with city trucks and outside companies like Waste Management and Laketran will run from noon to 2 p.m. Aug. 23.

“When you look at our schedule, there is always some type of entertainment going on,” said Hegreness.

The city will be highlighting the community stage this year, Korsok said.

“We moved it to a primary location and filled it with local entertainment,” she said.